What you need to know : Newcastle United 0-0 Arsenal FC

Arsenal were held to a 0-0 draw at St. James Park today. Debutant Gervinho saw red as we witnessed a ‘starved Arsenal’ failing to get 3 points.

Our first chance came in the first minute when Rosicky shot went wide of Krul. It took some time to get into our flow of things, but no sooner did we get into that mood than Newcastle broke it up.

On 12, Gervinho almost got to a pass from Arshavin after the latter had made a dashing run down the right.

On 26, we should have gone 1-0 up when Arshavin was put through on goal. It was a 2 vs. 1 situation but the Russian bottled it as he chose to give an early cross to Gervinho rather than taking the ball up himself.

In the 43rd min, we had the second real chance of the game when a delicate chip from Arshavin put RVP through. Unfortunately the Dutchman couldn’t collect it as Krul did without any problem.

It was a dull first half with no real effort to test Krul. As suspected without Fabregas and Nasri this Arsenal team lacked that extra bit of quality. Realistically, we could only look at Van Persie for a solution.

Rosicky took up the CAM role today, but for most parts of the match he drifted away from his position. Vermaelen looked good at the back, and so did Szczesny. As far as Gervinho was concerned the man knows how to get pass a player, but when in front of goal he seems confused whether he should shoot or not. Arshavin constantly swapped flanks with him, and he too hesitated to shoot when in front of goal. It was a clueless performance from a clueless team. Like it or not, we need some quality in this team otherwise Arsenal may be equated to Spurs within a few months.

Newcastle started the second half better than us. They played at a higher tempo and closed us down quite well.

On 52, after some brilliant footwork from Rosicky Gervinho was put through on the right (by the former). The Ivorian should have shot but chose to delay it and in turn threw away the chance.

1 min later RVP’’s free-kick skimmed the roof of the net after Sagna was brought down on the left.

On 63, Krul was tested for the first time as a lovely move from Arsenal ended in Theo shooting straight at Krul.

On 75, debutant Gervinho saw red for a slap on Barton. It was a needless for Barton to get involved. He did, and Gervinho saw red while he saw yellow.

In extra time Newcastle could have got 3 points but Koshers saved our ass via a strong clearance.

PERSPECTIVE :

One of the dullest performances from an Arsenal team in a very long time. Ramsey is creative but to ask him to lead a team is a bit too much in my opinion. Not everybody is a Fabregas you know. The midfield can be compared to a plant starved of water, and no matter how much belief Wenger has he is deluded to believe that this team can win the league. The defense is but one cannot conclude that it won’t. Newcastle did not give much of a fight to be honest, and if this was a team like Manchester United then we would surely get slaughtered.

I, just as every true gunner out there believes there’s need to buy,AW should invest for Christ sake,that match today was one of the poorest performances i have witnessed as a gunner,can’t we go back to the glory days???in Wenger i do not trust,not anymore

Investment in the squad is always a possibility, but the fact is that the manager believes that this squad is good enough to compete. I would gladly give all the money in the clubs bank a\c JUST TO CHANGE HIS MINDSET.

I didn’t see any creativity from the midfielders. Their off the ball play were too slow and looked disjointed. On many occasions, the defense had to bypass midfield by playing long balls. Defense performed well in my opinion and I think they will continue to perform well as long as Squillaci is not on the pitch.

If Wenger think that we do not need replacement for Cesc & Nasri, Arsenal will end the season somewhere in mid table unless the young new recruits can perform miracles. I’m really hoping Wenger will bring in a few experiences players in those needed areas. Actually, there’s nothing to say that the fans have not already known and the result today should come as no surprise to anyone..

Wenger’s had all summer to prepare the team for the first match. We are so far short of where we need to be. He knew Cesc and Nasri were going and should have identified and recruited replacements before we kicked off. We have the cash flow to enable us to do this.

It’s no use saying the transfer windown is open for another 17 days as there are points up for grabs now and CL qualifier to be negotiated.

yesterday’s press conference was THE final straw for me. It’s not a question of IF, merely WHEN….so sad…..

First Ramsey and Arshavin should not have started this game. Ramsey should have been sent out on loan to sharpen up before getting into our midfield, and Arshavin has clearly loosed it. Only AW believes that this squad is good enough to win something. It is a shame that his stubbornness won’t allow him to take some pieces of advice from people who love and respect him. He is the architect of his own failure. Spend some fucking money please.

Don’t you know that there aren’t any players out there that can add to this squad, and that this squad is the best squad in the world, in terms of defense, MIDFIELD and attack ?
Why sign players, when you have the BEST ?